


Unflappability

by youcouldmakealife



Series: Impaired Judgment (and other excuses) [94]
Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-27 12:15:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20045863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youcouldmakealife/pseuds/youcouldmakealife
Summary: Jared still hasn’t told Julius about Bryce. He knows he should, knows he has to before they get there, he can’t just like, knock on the door and have Bryce open it and say ‘surprise, my fiancé’s the enemy!’. Like, it’s faintly hilarious thinking about it but Bryce would also murder him, and Jared would deserve it.





	Unflappability

Christmas approaches. Julius spends hundreds of dollars on shipping Christmas presents to his family, helps Jared wrap the presents he’s bringing to Calgary. He’s neater than Jared about it, so Jared makes him do Elaine’s. She deserves good wrapping. The rest of them can deal with Jared’s shitty wrapping, but Elaine deserves better.

Julius frowns at the shit job Jared’s done on his sweater, and then re-wraps it himself, sticking a bow on it. Jared didn’t even know he had bows. At this point he fully expects Julius to make a fake surprised face when he opens it, like his mom does whenever his dad buys her what she pointedly asked for.

They lose three straight before the break, so that’s great. Honestly like, typical, but it hasn’t stopped burning yet. There are guys on the team that look resigned to it, and Jared doesn’t ever want to be like that, get so used to losing it feels almost natural. 

Jared still hasn’t told Julius about Bryce. He knows he should, knows he has to before they get there, he can’t just like, knock on the door and have Bryce open it and say ‘surprise, my fiancé’s the enemy!’. Like, it’s faintly hilarious thinking about it but Bryce would also murder him, and Jared would deserve it.

Jared’s trying to figure out the right time, but it just never seems to come. And it’s not like they don’t have any time alone or anything, Julius is straight up a fixture at Jared’s apartment, but every time Jared opens his mouth to tell him, nothing comes out. Or, things come out, but they’re completely unrelated to the fact Jared is one hundred percent banging the best player on a team they fucking hate and also he’s going to marry him. It’s apparently hard to bring that up.

Thankfully it’s a matinee game they play on the twenty-third, so after they get their asses smoked by the Golden Seals, they pile straight into Jared’s car, which is already packed. Jared would probably do the drive even after an evening game, but at least this way they’re not showing up at two in the morning. Bryce has a game tonight, so he won’t be there when they arrive, but Elaine got into Calgary a couple days ago, so she will be.

He still hasn’t told Julius. He is very aware of the fact that he still hasn’t told Julius.

They get within an hour of Calgary, and Julius is completely oblivious about whose apartment he’s about to be crashing, and Jared needs to tell him, and —

“Hey,” he says.

“Hmm?” Julius says, opening one eye. 

Oh, he’s napping. Jared shouldn’t bother him.

It isn’t until Jared sees the sign welcoming them to Calgary, and frantically starts thinking ‘oh hey, maybe we should go to my parents’ that he knows he has to bite the damn bullet.

“My fiancé’s a Flame,” Jared says, maybe too loudly, since he sees Julius startle. Jared keeps his eyes firmly forward, but Julius doesn’t say anything, and he can’t help but sneak a glance. Julius is looking down at his phone, typing rapid-pace, and for a second Jared thinks he just didn’t hear him, before Julius says, carefully, “I think I have a misunderstanding,” and Jared realises he’s probably on his translation app. That app has done so much heavy lifting for them, communicating wise. Jared honestly adores it. He downloaded it too, but apparently his Finnish is like, impossible to understand, judging by Julius’ face whenever Jared tries to use it, so he’s given up on that front.

“My fiancé plays for the Calgary Flames,” Jared says. “Um. You should know that, before you meet him.”

The good news is that he has to keep his eyes on the road, so he can’t break down in the face of whatever look Julius is giving him.

“Who?” Julius asks finally.

“Bryce Marcus,” Jared says. “We uh. He was running this training camp I was doing a few years back, or like, not running it, honestly he wasn’t doing much, but we like — I don’t know why I’m telling you this. You probably don’t even understand half the stuff I’m saying right now.”

That’s not even like, a dig. Jared doesn’t think native English speakers would understand half the stuff he’s saying right now, he’s going so fast. Apparently he doesn’t need see people staring at him to crack, he just needs knows that their eyes are on him.

“Obviously you can’t tell anyone,” Jared says. “Like, ever. He’s not out — I mean, neither am I but he’s _really_ not out, and like. He’s not really happy about you knowing this since you play for a rival team but I told him you were trustworthy, so. I’m gonna write that down for you and we can translate it or something, that’s something you kind of need to know.”

“Too fast,” Julius says, finally, and Jared apologises, says he’ll try it slower. 

“The _car_ is too fast,” Julius stresses, and Jared realises he’s going like, Bryce speed.

“Fuck,” Jared says, and slows down.

*

“Bryce Marcus,” Julius says, when they’re close to Jared’s apartment. Jared’s maybe slowed down extra, because Julius hasn’t said anything since he pointed out Jared was speeding, and the kernel of dread that’s been sitting in him since he invited Julius to Calgary has grown to overtake every single part of him.

“Yeah,” Jared says. “Bryce Marcus.”

“Hottest Flame,” Julius says blandly, and it’s a good fucking thing they’re at a red light right now.

Jared can see Julius’ mouth tick up when he sputters. He saves all his little asides and snideness and sense of humour for when they’re alone — it is _delightful_ watching hockey with him, he has so much shade to throw, and lack of language facility won’t stop him; he’s straight up shoved his phone under Jared’s nose with his snide remarks about opponents translated into English — so no one would believe Jared if he told them that. Jared isn’t sure if he even knows it’s a pun. How is Julius better at jokes than almost everyone Jared knows when he’s still barely conversant in English? While also being the best at hockey. It seems unfair.

“You’re a fucking troll,” Jared says, and Julius’ smirk widens. Jared isn’t even sure he knows what the word troll means, he’s probably just pleased with himself for flustering Jared. “I mean, obviously, though. There’s a reason I’m marrying him, and it isn’t just his hockey.” That’s not like, actually one of them either — or is, just, very incidentally, because obviously Jared’s attracted to his own fiancé, but still.

There is a certain amount of triumphant vindication in the way Julius looks faintly scandalised, his trolling blowing up in his face.

“But seriously,” Jared says. “You’ll be cool, right? This is cool? I really need this to be cool.”

Julius gives him a thumbs up, and Jared feels relieved, but it only lasts for a minute, until they’re pulling into the parking lot and grabbing their bags and splitting the bags of presents and Julius does not look cool. Julius looks a little wild-eyed, which is how Jared is feeling. He should not have waited to break this until this last minute, this was definitely days to mull over information. 

Elaine answers the door, and Jared is honestly so grateful that Bryce isn’t home yet, because Jared’s like, not sure how to greet Bryce in front of Julius, who knows now but also hasn’t like, _seen_ it, and —

Elaine hugs are awesome and also not complicated like Bryce hugs would be, and Jared sags into it.

“Great to see you, honey,” she says. “Good drive?”

“Uneventful,” Jared says, which is such a lie.

“And you must be Julius,” she says. “I’m Bryce’s mom, Elaine.”

“Hi,” Julius says, face still stuck on panic mode.

“Bryce tells me you’re having one heck of a season,” Elaine says, which gets a small smile at least. Elaine’s great that way. “I’m sorry I took the bed.”

“That’s okay,” Julius says.

“Did you want anything to drink?” Elaine asks, and it’s kind of weird to be like, offered drinks in his own apartment? But Julius asks for a Gatorade, and Jared shrugs agreement, and Elaine disappears into the kitchen.

Jared can hear the game in the background, peeks at the TV after he puts all the presents down to find the Flames up 5-2 against the Wild. “5-2 Flames,” he reports.

“Boo,” Julius says flatly.

“There is no booing the Flames in this apartment,” Jared says, and Julius gives him another scandalised look. Possibly more scandalised than the one in the car. Which — yeah. Jared guesses it’s one thing to marry a divisional rival, and a whole other thing to support his team. Which Jared doesn’t! Mostly. Kind of. When he’s on the ice against them, at least. He definitely doesn’t then, because losing fucking sucks.

“You watch the whole game?” Jared asks Elaine when she comes out of the kitchen.

“Goal and an assist,” she says.

“Nice,” Jared says.

Julius takes the blue Gatorade from Elaine with a mumbled thanks, and then, after Jared reluctantly takes the red and eyes Julius for a moment, sighs and offers the blue one so they can swap. “You want a tour?” Jared asks, when Elaine sits back down in front of the game, eyes firmly fixed on a little red jersey Jared can tell is Bryce just from its bearing. He may as well get it done before Bryce gets back.

Julius shrugs agreement.

“So you’re sleeping here,” Jared says, gesturing at the couch. “Kitchen, take whatever you want out of it.”

“Except that,” Julius says, eyeing Jared’s Gatorade.

“Blue isn’t even your favourite,” Jared says. He likes orange for some stupid reason. “Dining room table we use like, never. Giant wall of pucks and shit because Bryce is very humble.”

Elaine snorts, shares a grin with Jared when he looks over.

Julius frowns very intently at Bryce’s draft jersey, and then even more intently at Jared’s draft jersey, which is now part of the wall thanks to Jared’s mom being a traitor and not letting him keep it bunched in the back of the closet. He’s mostly over the Oilers angst by this point, so he guesses she maybe made the right call.

“You live here,” Julius says, like he’s just realising that.

“I mean,” Jared says. “Yeah.”

Julius looks over at him, and Jared’s suddenly reminded of Chaz, thinking Jared was punking the shit out of him when he told him Bryce was his boyfriend. It’s not _that_ unbelievable.

Okay, maybe it’s that unbelievable. Jared’s pretty fucking grateful he managed to snag the unbelievable.

“You can put your bags and shit in our room, c’mon,” Jared says, and Julius follows him, bag on his shoulder, as Jared shows him the bathroom, their bedroom, bed made for once. Jared doesn’t know if Bryce did that because Elaine was there or because Julius was coming. 

“Okay, what’s up?” Jared says, because Julius is still very much making a face, and Jared would really like that face to no longer be there when Bryce gets home in like — not long now, since Elaine just called out ‘last minute of play!’ from the living room.

Julius shrugs. “Nothing,” he says.

“Nothing,” Jared repeats. “Bud, if you’re having like, a homophobic freakout now that you’re confronted with the fact I’m actually in a serious relationship with a guy, I kind of need to know that before Bryce gets home.” 

And then what, ship Julius off to his parents? Stick him in a hotel? Realise he trusted the wrong fucking person? Jared honestly has no clue, so he’s really hoping that isn’t the issue.

“I’m not homophobic,” Julius says, frowning.

“Then what?” Jared says. “Because you’re like, super uncomfortable right now and this is already like — kind of a fraught situation, and —” And there’s absolutely no way Julius knows the word fraught, and not being able to properly communicate right now is _really_ not good.

“Just—” Julius says, frustrated, like the communication thing’s bugging him too, and then shrugs again. “Weird.”

“Weird how?” Jared says.

Julius scowls at him.

“Seriously, kind of a thing we need to establish,” Jared says. “Weird how?”

“I don’t _know_,” Julius says. 

“Okay,” Jared says, trying to be patient. It really isn’t one of his strengths. “It’s not weird that I’m engaged to a guy?”

“I’m _not homophobic_,” Julius says, frustration sounding more like anger now.

“Okay!” Jared says. “Weird that I’m engaged to a hockey player?”

“Kind of,” Julius says.

“A Flame?” Jared asks.

“Weird,” Julius pronounces.

“Yeah, imagine how I felt getting drafted by the Oilers when my boyfriend was the Flames’ lead scorer,” Jared says.

Julius seems to relax a little. As far as things to find weird, at least it’s Bryce being a rival and not being a guy, he guesses. Jared would prefer Julius was being his chill, unbothered by everything ever little self, but at least freaked out Julius probably looks very similar to normal bored Julius to the average person, Jared just knows better from repeated exposure.

“You’ll be cool when you meet him, right?” Jared says. “No like, stabbing him because he’s the enemy?”

Julius rolls his eyes, almost completely back to normal, which is a relief.

“Promise to be cool,” Jared says.

“I’m always cool,” Julius says.

“Debatable,” Jared says, holding his hand out. “Promise.”

“Promise,” Julius says solemnly, and they shake on it.


End file.
